Hi, bought an Everex gOS computer (the $200 one) to use as a goofing around computer and I seem to have screwed something up.

It came installed with gOS which I hated because I was using it on a 50" plasma display in the family room and the fonts were not adjustable for some of the programs, so I couldn't read the display.

I installed fedora 7 from a DVD I had laying around and installed the GNOME desktop. Everything was fine until I installed WINE and then iTunes so I could share an iTunes library from the other computers running on the home network.

After installing iTunes, it was being balky (black screen which would come back after a while) so I rebooted (like the good Windows slave that I am, if something isn't working, reboot, right?)

Upon reboot, the initial screens looked fine (the Everex intro page, the scrolling text, even the fedora is about to boot in 3...2...1 page) but then the screen flashed black and then the monitor distorted in a way reminiscent of an old TV that was not quite getting reception. Everything is on a 45 degree angle and scrambled looking.

I tried reinstalling the software and that didn't fix it. But the installation pages looked fine, so it's not necessarily a hardware thing. I then reinstalled gOS and it works fine (to the extent that it works....) and then reinstalled fedora 7 and same problem.

Any thoughts? Keep in mind I am pretty new to the whole linux thing and will need step by step directions to fix anything.

Thanks in advance.

Was it just happening on the boot screen or was the login distorted too. In any case it could be that the monitor isn't being reconized properly. This happens to me from time to time. All that is needed is to edit the xorg.conf file. Before you edit anything you should post your xorg.conf file to be sure.

In terminal

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then scroll down till you see the Section "Monitor" spot. Usually it is the Horzsync and the Vertrefresh options that are wrong. Look on the back of you monitor it should say the proper numbers. If not go to the manufacturers website and look up support and of course RTFM. The just change those values acordingly. Then save and it should be fixed.

If you can't find the right values. Setting both to 30-60 work for me 99% of the time.

Not sure why Wine would throw it off though.

The boot screen is fine, it only goes haywire when it gets to the login screen. And if I type in the login and password, even though I can't read anything (it's that distorted) I can tell it logs in and the desktop is distorted as well.

Here comes the really dumb question: If I can't see anything on the screen, how do I get to terminal? Is there a way to get to terminal before the log in?

Told you, total newbie with linux.

BTW, I connected a Samsung monitor instead of the 50" vizio plasma and the display looked the same...

Thanks!

two options one hit escape to open the list at grub there should be an option labeled recovery mode. That will log you in as root into a terminal. You'll need to put in the password ocourse. THe other is when you get to the log-in screen hit ctl+alt+F1. This will get you into a non-X session. You can go back with ctrl+alt+F7.

when in terminal use nano or pico instead of gedit.

Ok, it's working and I guess I can never ever reboot. Sort of.

When I first installed fedora I used the tv as the monitor and it was all screwed up. Thought the install was wrong, so I hooked up a monitor to the box and reinstalled. It worked fine. Then I just switched the cable to hook up the tv.

I just hooked up the monitor and rebooted. It worked fine on the monitor and then stayed perfect when I switched the cable to the tv.

So, if I want to reboot I need to drag the monitor out of the office and hook it up.

Is there a better way? I assume that the problem is that the system autodetects some settings from the TV which end up being the wrong settings. Anyway to lock in the display settings to what they are now so that it stays this way?

If not, I have my low-tech work around.

Thanks for your help!